Auri Inc. (OTCMKTS:AURI) Decided That It’s Time for a Second Run

On May 28, Auri Inc. (OTCMKTS:AURI) announced that they have reached a lock-up agreement with a few of the major shareholders which was supposed to allow them to complete some acquisitions. They also announced that they want to turn the company into an SEC reporting entity and said that they dream of being on the big boards one day.

Predictably, AURI shot up and it was transformed from an extremely illiquid OTC ticker to one of the most heavily traded stocks in Pennyland. It also reached a peak of almost $0.007. Something similar happened yesterday.

The company once again said that it’s working towards up-listing the stock to one of the more reputable tiers of the OTC Markets and they promised that updates will be posted when necessary. In the meantime, however, they said that in order to bring more value to their shareholders, they have reached an agreement to cancel 500 million outstanding shares.

Once again, investors scrambled for AURI. The dollar volume shot up from just $2.4 thousand on Tuesday to nearly $164 thousand yesterday and the ticker gained an impressive 60%. The only problem is, it stopped at $0.0032 per share or about 53% below the peak registered at the end of May.

In fact, the performance over the last two and a half months has been pretty appalling. At one point in July the ticker bottomed out at the levels it was occupying before the initial surge and the thirty-day average volume of less than 5 million shares (compared to the 40 million that changed hands yesterday) shows that investors aren’t really sure about AURI. Why is that?

Well, if you’ve been reading through our articles closely, you’d know that there are some questions around the names of some of the members of the management team. The name of Edward Vakser, AURI‘s Chairman, is especially controversial according to some investors. You can still see the skeptics around the message boards, you can read through their opinions, and you can decide for yourself whether you should trust them.

What we will say (once again) is that Mr. Vakser has been involved with several OTC companies like 3D Eye Solutions, In (OTCMKTS:TDEY), ProTek Capital Inc (OTCMKTS:PRPM), and Artfest International Inc, and we’ll also say that neither the companies in question, nor the people who invested in them are doing too well at the moment. Even if you disregard the past, you might think about one or two other things.

Yesterday’s press release, for example, would have you believe that the people running AURI are working hard towards up-listing the stock. They seem to be so busy with this, however, that they have forgotten about their reporting obligations under the alternative standards. The Q2 report is still not out and there’s no notification of late filing. The press release doesn’t say when it’s supposed to be published, either.

This means that the latest financials that you have to work with are now four and a half months old, and as we mentioned in our previous articles, they don’t look too good. That’s not a particularly good combination in Pennyland.

About fifteen minutes after today’s opening bell, AURI is sitting at $0.003 (about 6% in the red).